Papa John’s Founder John Schnatter Steps Down As Firm’s CEO

John Schnatter, the founding father of Papa John’s, is stepping down as CEO of the corporate simply two months after talking out in opposition to NFL management for permitting gamers to kneel through the nationwide anthem.

In a convention name with shareholders in November, he claimed that the protests have been taking a big chunk out of the corporate’s gross sales.

Steve Ritchie, the Chief Working Officer of the pizza chain, will change Schnatter on Jan. 1. Schnatter, who’s probably the most public determine within the firm, will stay the chairman of the board and the biggest shareholder of Papa John’s inventory. A choice about Schnatter nonetheless being probably the most noticeable spokesman for the corporate has not but been made

Ritchie, like Schnatter, additionally criticized the league’s dealing with of the protests in the identical November convention name.

“We count on it to persist until an answer is put in place,” Ritchie mentioned in regards to the kneeling’s connection to falling pizza gross sales.

Each these feedback wound up hurting the corporate much more. Two weeks after that convention name, shares of the franchise’s inventory have been down by 12.eight %.

Amid a public backlash to Schnatter’s feedback, white supremacists took to his protection.

The corporate took to Twitter and apologized for the saucy feedback after neo-Nazi web site the Day by day Stormer gave Papa John’s the esteemed title of official pizza of the alt-right.

“The statements made on our earnings name have been describing the elements that impression our enterprise and we sincerely apologize to anybody that thought they have been divisive. That undoubtedly was not our intention,” Papa John’s wrote.

“We imagine in the best to protest inequality and assist the gamers’ motion to create a brand new platform for change. We additionally imagine collectively, as Individuals, we should always honor our anthem. There’s a strategy to do each.”

Shares of Papa John’s are nonetheless down 13 % from when the NFL feud started and have plummeted 30 % general this 12 months.